FT speaks with Catherine Sarr and Guggenheim Chief Curator Naomi Beckwith

Cover Image courtesy of FT How to Spend It and David Kasnic

Financial Times | How to Spend It spoke with Catherine Sarr, founder of ALMASIKA, in conversation with curator Naomi Beckwith, soon-to-be Deputy Director and Chief Curator at the Guggenheim Museum. Read the full interview on FT How to Spend It 

‘It started as an introspection’

“Oh Lord, won’t you buy me a Lynette Yiadom-Boakye.” Naomi Beckwith laughs. The Manilow senior curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago is talking to her friend, jeweller and art collector Catherine Sarr, about dream acquisitions – and the paintings of London-based British-Ghanaian artist Yiadom-Boakye feature highly. 

This type of back-and-forth is the crux of Sarr and Beckwith’s relationship – forged over regular family dinners at each other’s Chicago homes, and circling around the Sarr art collection. “There are lots of different issues that we debate – strongly,” says Sarr, who was born in France to Beninese parents, and worked at De Beers before launching her own jewellery brand, Almasika, in 2014. “When it comes to art, sometimes we disagree. We have our own perspectives. But it always feels like a positive debate.” 

 Read the full interview  by Victoria Woodcock on FT How to Spend It